Legal pimp defeats Nevada lawmaker in GOP race

The owner of half a dozen legal brothels in Nevada has ousted a Republican state lawmaker running for re-election.

Dennis Hof defeated incumbent Assembly member James Oscarson and a third candidate in a GOP primary race Tuesday.

Hof starred in the HBO adult reality series "Cathouse." He was in the limelight in 2015, when former NBA player Lamar Odom was found unconscious at Hof's Love Ranch brothel in Crystal, Nevada, after a four-day, $75,000 stay.

He challenged Oscarson as a Libertarian in 2016 but lost the race.

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12:32 a.m.

Republican businessman Shawn Moody has won Tuesday's ranked-choice voting primary in the race to succeed Maine's firebrand Gov. Paul LePage, while no clear majority winner has emerged in the Democratic primary.

The founder of a string of auto repair shops won a majority of the Republican vote, meaning there's no need for additional rounds of voting under the system used in a statewide primary for the first time in U.S. history.

If the Democratic result holds when all of the votes are counted, there would be additional rounds of vote tabulations next week.

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12:17 a.m.

Democrats have settled a bruising primary for Nevada governor, nominating Clark County Commission Chair Steve Sisolak to take on the state's Republican attorney general in November.

Sisolak, who had the backing of former Sen. Harry Reid and chairs the powerful commission overseeing the Las Vegas Strip and surrounding communities, defeated his commission colleague Christina Giunchigliani.

His general election opponent, Adam Laxalt, easily won the backing of Nevada Republicans.

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12:09 a.m.

South Carolina Rep. Mark Sanford has lost the Republican nomination for his congressional seat to an opponent who attacked his criticism of President Donald Trump.

Voters on Tuesday decided state Rep. Katie Arrington would be the Republican candidate in the coastal 1st District.

Sanford is a former governor who has never lost an election in eight races in South Carolina, even after he admitted to an affair with a woman in Argentina.

In defense of his stance on Trump, Sanford has said he criticizes anyone regardless of party if they deserve it.

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11:35 p.m.

U.S. Rep. Mark Amodei (AM'-uh-day) has defeated conservative activist Sharron Angle and won the Republican Party's nomination as he seeks re-election to Nevada's 2nd Congressional District.

Amodei defeated Angle on Tuesday in the race for the district covering Nevada's northern half.

Amodei is expected to win re-election in November to the Republican-heavy district.

He was first elected in 2011 to replace Dean Heller, who had been appointed to the U.S. Senate.

Angle is a former legislator who gained national attention in 2010 when she unsuccessfully challenged ex-Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. She also lost a 2016 bid to become the GOP's nominee to replace Reid.

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11:20 p.m.

Three Democrats have locked up nominations for congressional seats in Nevada.

U.S. Rep. Dina Titus defeated challenger Reuben D'Silva on Tuesday in her bid for re-election in the 1st Congressional District.

Susie Lee cruised to an easy primary victory in a key congressional race in Nevada, setting up a battle in November for the seat left open when U.S. Rep. Jacky Rosen decided to run for Senate.

Lee captured the nomination against largely unknown rivals in the 3rd District covering much of suburban Las Vegas.

And Steven Horsford won the primary for the 4th District seat he held in southern Nevada for one term before Republican Cresent Hardy defeated him in 2014.

He'll face a rematch in November against Hardy, who captured the GOP nomination Tuesday night.

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11:05 p.m.

Republican state Attorney General Adam Laxalt has defeated more than half a dozen opponents to become the GOP nominee for Nevada governor.

The 39-year-old faced state Treasurer Dan Schwartz and six other lesser-known candidates in Tuesday's election.

Laxalt is a former lieutenant in the U.S. Navy who has served as the state's chief prosecutor since 2015. He's the grandson of former U.S. Sen. and Nevada Gov. Paul Laxalt and son of former U.S. Sen. Pete Domenici of New Mexico.

He supported Donald Trump for president in 2016.

He's backed in his bid for governor by billionaire casino owner Sheldon Adelson and Americans for Prosperity, a conservative advocacy group funded by the wealthy Koch brothers.

Moderate Republican Gov. Brian Sandoval is leaving the office because he is term-limited.

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11 p.m.

Nevada Republican Dean Heller has secured his party's nomination as he seeks re-election to the U.S. Senate.

Heller defeated four others in the Republican primary on Tuesday. He was able to cruise through his primary race after President Donald Trump earlier this year persuaded Heller's main challenger, Danny Tarkanian, to drop out. Tarkanian sought a U.S. House seat instead.

Heller is considered the most vulnerable Republican U.S. senator seeking re-election this year because he's the only one running in a state that Democrat Hillary Clinton won in 2016.

Heller was a past critic of the president but has become closer to him in recent months and helped deliver the overhaul of the U.S. tax codes to Trump's desk in December.

Heller is expected to have a close race in November against Democrat Jacky Rosen.

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10:55 p.m.

U.S. Rep. Mark Sanford is trailing in the Republican congressional primary in South Carolina to an opponent supported in last-minute tweets by President Donald Trump.

As results came in Tuesday, Sanford told a crowd in suburban Charleston: "I've always been a realist and at this point, based on the numbers I see, I'm going to lose this race."

With much of the vote counted, state Rep. Katie Arrington was on the cusp of winning outright. But as Sanford spoke to the crowd, the race was still too close to call.

Arrington says Sanford criticized Trump too much, calling him a "Never Trumper." One ad said "it's time for Mark Sanford to take a hike — for real this time."

That refers to 2009, when Sanford's aides said he was hiking the Appalachian Trail while he actually visited a woman with whom he was having an affair in Argentina.

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10:25 p.m.

Archie Parnell has won the Democratic nomination in a South Carolina congressional district despite revelations from a divorce filing last month that he beat his wife more than 40 years ago.

Parnell garnered the nomination Tuesday even after Democratic officials including the party's chairman ask for him to leave the race.

Parnell's divorce records say in 1973 he broke a glass door with a tire iron, then beat his wife. Parnell didn't deny the allegations, but said he was a changed man.

Parnell's win sets up a rematch with U.S. Rep. Ralph Norman. Parnell lost by just 3 percentage points in a special election last year.

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10 p.m.

Results are upcoming in dozens of legislative and primary races in Nevada now that polls have closed.

The most closely watched race Tuesday is the gubernatorial primary race in which Clark County Commission colleagues Steve Sisolak (SIHS'-oh-lahk) and Christina Giunchigliani (joon-kihl-ee-AHN'-ee) are vying to be the state's first Democratic governor in two decades.

Nevada Deputy Secretary of State for Elections Wayne Thorley has said voters were turning out in higher rates than past primary elections because of the close primary race to succeed outgoing Gov. Brian Sandoval.

Republican U.S. Sen. Dean Heller is expected to breeze through the primary race after President Donald Trump earlier persuaded his strongest GOP opponent to drop out.

Election officials in two counties said there were a small number of display problems in which some voters didn't initially see a complete list of candidates. Fewer than 30 voters were affected.

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9:25 p.m.

Republican state Sen. Kelly Armstrong has won North Dakota's U.S. House primary.

Armstrong is vying to replace Rep. Kevin Cramer, who running for the U.S. Senate seat held by Democrat Heidi Heitkamp. Cramer won his primary Tuesday.

Armstrong easily defeated former Marine Tiffany Abentroth and former North Dakota State football player Paul Schaffner. State Sen. Tom Campbell also appeared on the ballot despite dropping out of the race.

Armstrong, an attorney from Dickinson, has strong ties to the state's oil industry.

He'll face Democrat Mac Schneider, a Grand Forks attorney who had no opposition in the primary. Schneider served two terms in the North Dakota Senate before being unseated in 2016.

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9:25 p.m.

Joe Cunningham has won the Democratic nomination in South Carolina's coastal 1st Congressional District.

The construction lawyer and yoga studio owner defeated Toby Smith on Tuesday and will go on to face a Republican in November's general election.

The district, which includes Charleston and the southern coast, has not elected a Democrat since 1978.

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9:20 p.m.

Incumbent Henry McMaster has been forced into a runoff for the Republican nomination in South Carolina's gubernatorial primary.

McMaster was an early supporter of President Donald Trump, and he was the top vote-getter in Tuesday's primary. But he failed to win the 50 percent necessary to avoid a runoff. Now, he and Greenville businessman John Warren are headed for a second contest June 26.

The vote tested the heft of Trump's endorsement in South Carolina, where McMaster became governor last year following Nikki Haley's departure to serve as U.N. ambassador. As lieutenant governor, McMaster was the nation's first statewide elected official to back Trump ahead of South Carolina's early presidential primary.

McMaster was unsuccessful in his 2010 gubernatorial bid, losing a four-way primary to Haley. The GOP nominee faces Democratic state Rep. James Smith in November.

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9:10 p.m.

U.S. Rep. Kevin Cramer has defeated a little-known opponent to win North Dakota's Republican primary for U.S. Senate.

Cramer easily beat Air Force veteran Thomas O'Neill on Tuesday.

Cramer now faces a tougher campaign to unseat Democratic Sen. Heidi Heitkamp in a race seen as critical for control of the closely divided Senate.

Cramer is a former state Republican Party chairman. He was first elected to the House in 2012 and has easily won re-election twice since then.

Cramer initially passed up the Senate race this year but said he changed his mind at the urging of President Donald Trump and others who saw him as the GOP's best hope to defeat Heitkamp.

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9:05 p.m.

History is being made, in slow motion, in Maine where ranked-choice voting is being used for the first time in a statewide primary election.

Democrats and Republicans ranked candidates for governor from first to last in Tuesday's primaries in a system that's sometimes called instant runoff voting in 11 local jurisdictions where it's currently in use.

But there's nothing instant about Maine's process.

If there's no majority winner, then the ballots will be shipped to the state capital for additional tabulations. Under the system, last-place candidates are eliminated and votes reallocated until there's a winner.

If it comes down to that, then Secretary of State Matt Dunlap said winners won't be announced until sometime next week.

Mainers who approved the system in 2016 also voted Tuesday on whether to use the system in November for federal races.

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8:55 p.m.

Longtime state Rep. James Smith has won the Democratic nomination in South Carolina's gubernatorial race.

Smith has led the pack in fundraising, but recent polling in the race showed many voters had yet to make up their minds.

The incumbent, Republican Gov. Henry McMaster, is seeking his first full term in office.

Smith has served in the state Legislature for 22 years. He was a JAG officer in the U.S. Army Reserve and South Carolina Army National Guard but resigned his commission after the Sept. 11 attacks to enlist in the infantry.

Smith has selected fellow state Rep. Mandy Powers Norrell as his running mate.

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8:50 p.m.

Corey Stewart has won the Republican nomination for U.S. Senate in Virginia and will face incumbent Tim Kaine in the November general election.

Stewart is a conservative provocateur who often feuds with members of his party. He's a one-time state chairman of President Donald Trump's 2016 presidential campaign and nearly won the 2017 Republican nomination for governor.

The Democrat is the early favorite to win the general election. Virginia Republicans haven't won a statewide race in nearly a decade, and Kaine has a massive fundraising advantage over Stewart.

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8:10 p.m.

U.S. Rep. Barbara Comstock has won the GOP nomination as she seeks re-election in her northern Virginia congressional district that is a prime target of Democrats trying to gain control of the House.

In the Tuesday primary, Comstock fought off a challenge from Shak Hill, who attacked the two-term incumbent as insufficiently conservative and weak in her support of President Donald Trump.

Comstock represents Virginia's 10th Congressional District. It stretches from the wealthy suburbs of McLean, inside the Capital Beltway, west to Winchester. Comstock won re-election in 2016 with 53 percent of the vote, but Democrats have high hopes of claiming the seat. Voters there supported Hillary Clinton in 2016 by a 10-point margin over Trump.

Six Democrats ran in that party's primary Tuesday for the opportunity to unseat Comstock.

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8:05 p.m.

Democrats have elected state Sen. Jennifer Wexton as their nominee in a northern Virginia congressional district key to the party's hopes of gaining control of the U.S. House.

The 10th District stretches from the wealthy suburbs of McLean inside the Capital Beltway west to Winchester. It is considered the most likely seat in Virginia to flip from Republican to Democratic — Hillary Clinton carried the district by 10 points in 2016, though Republican incumbent Barbara Comstock won re-election with 53 percent of the vote.

The race attracted six Democrats, including four who raised $980,000 or more. Wexton was the only elected official and the favorite after receiving the endorsement of Gov. Ralph Northam.

But several other candidates outraised or matched Wexton in fundraising. One competitor, Alison Friedman, committed $1 million of her money.

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7 p.m.

Polls have closed in Virginia and South Carolina's primary elections.

A bellwether Virginia congressional district promises to be among the most watched races nationally Tuesday as five states hold primaries.

President Donald Trump also will be a factor, notably in two Republican primaries in South Carolina.

Trump is weighing in for South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster, an early supporter of the president's 2016 campaign, and against Republican Rep. Mark Sanford, an outspoken critic of the president who is facing a Trump devotee.

Elections are also scheduled in Maine, Nevada and North Dakota. Together, they raise to 21 the number of states having held their 2018 primary elections so far.

Trump says Sanford "has been very unhelpful to me" and is poking fun at his infamous disappearance in 2009, when he was found to have been carrying on an extramarital affair with a woman in Argentina.

Trump tweets "he's better off in Argentina."

Sanford was elected during a 2013 special election to the U.S. House seat he had held previously despite the controversy which led to his divorce from his wife, Jenny.

He has called Trump untrustworthy and culturally intolerant, prompting Republican state Rep. Katie Arrington to challenge Sanford.

Trump tweeted his endorsement of Arrington along with the swipe at Sanford.

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4:40 p.m.

A bellwether Virginia congressional district promises to be among the most watched races nationally in primary elections in nearly every region of the country Tuesday.

President Donald Trump also will be a factor, notably in two Republican primaries in South Carolina.

South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster has the president's backing but faces challenges from four other candidates. Republican Rep. Mark Sanford faces a challenge from a state lawmaker painting the outspoken former governor as insufficiently loyal to the president.

Elections are also scheduled in Maine, Nevada and North Dakota. Together, they raise to 21 the number of states having held their 2018 primary elections so far.

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